What I learned from waking up at 5am every day for a year

It's probably not the answer you're expecting. For as long as I can remember, I've been a night owl. Part of it was growing up in a toxic and volatile home - night time was peaceful and quiet, and the only time I felt I could relax a little bit. The other part of it was that, no matter what time I went to bed, I just couldn't get up easily in the mornings. My mother called me lazy. My teachers always assumed I'd just stayed up all night playing video games or watching TV. I always maintained, even as a kid, that not everyone is a morning person. I would be awoken every weekend day by my mother loudly blasting her "cleaning music" and the vacuum at about 6am. My brother and I would beg her to wait just a few more hours, to let us catch up on some sleep after a busy week. But she would always shout at us that by sleeping in, we were just being lazy layabouts. She'd tell us to go to bed earlier, but I couldn't go to bed any earlier than I already was...